The present invention generally relates to a method and a system for effecting transfer of a patient from a hospital via a computer network. Further, the present invention relates to a method and a system having a transfer request form created by the hospital and stored in a database which is accessible via the computer network. An agent effecting transfer of the patient from the hospital may access the database via the computer network and may effect transfer of the patient via the computer network.
It is, of course, generally known to provide databases having information thereon. The information may be stored within the database for accessing the information at a later time. Further, it is generally known to provide access to databases on a computer network, such as, for example, the internet. A website may be utilized to simultaneously provide access to the database for adding information to the database and for retrieving information from the database.
Known methods of moving patients to beds in medical health facilities generally involve the placing of a telephone call or sending a telefax to a medical health facility to determine if a bed or a plurality of beds is available for one or more patients. Further, known methods involve asking a plurality of questions to a representative of the medical health facility to determine types of beds available, types of services offered, payment method accepted and/or other information. These questions must be asked at each facility contacted to determine which facility best suits the patient. Moreover, many times, discharge personnel, doctors and/or nurses must contact the medical health care facilities to gather the information about each facility. This may require discharge personnel, doctors and/or nurses to spend more time performing an administrative task and less time providing care and support to patients and family members' often regarding difficult and serious life and/or other health-related decisions.
Further, it is generally known to provide a website having access to a database wherein the database denotes whether beds are available at a healthcare facility. However, known websites and databases do not provide a mechanism for a user to directly contact the healthcare facilities to make appointments, to reserve a bed or beds and/or to gather further information about the facility.
Further, known databases and websites provide no information on the types of beds available, the quantity of beds available and/or a forecast of what beds may be available and when beds may be available in the future. Moreover, known databases and websites do not provide healthcare facilities access to the databases for adding or changing information regarding bed availability.
It is generally known that a patient receiving medical treatment at a hospital is often transferred to a healthcare facility after the medical treatment at the hospital is completed. Often, a hospital will refer a patient to an inappropriate healthcare facility to increase bed availability and revenue at the hospital. Also, a hospital may refer a patient to an inappropriate healthcare facility to minimize the stay of the patient at the hospital. The inappropriate healthcare facility will accept the patient to increase revenues at the healthcare facility. The healthcare facility depends on reimbursement dollars from an insurance carrier of the patient for accepting the patient which increases the revenues at the healthcare facility. However, the insurance carrier often will not reimburse the healthcare facility if the healthcare facility is inappropriate for the patient.
To guarantee reimbursement from the insurance provider of the patient, the healthcare facility and the hospital require the transfer to be approved by an agent of the insurance provider or a government agency, such as, for example, an agent of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (hereinafter “the CMS agent”). The current approval process requires the hospital to send a transfer request to the agent via telefax. The agent makes a decision effecting the transfer request. If the transfer request is approved, a approval number is sent to the hospital and healthcare facility via telefax. Further, the approval number may include, for example, a numeric sequence, an alphabetic sequence and/or a sequence having both numerals and alphabetic letters. The approval number indicates that the insurance provider will reimburse the hospital for discharging the patient and the healthcare facility for accepting the transfer of the patient. However, the agent may receive thousands of the transfer requests per day resulting in a long delay before the agent makes a decision on the transfer request.
A need, therefore, exists for an improved method and a system for effecting transfer of a patient from a hospital via a computer network that overcome the problems associated with known methods and systems.